Chapter 21: Run Like the Wolves...

The halls of the Institute were dark. At night one could really tell how vast the building was. All the massive spiral and slanted staircases covered in thick luxurious rugs. The smells of old shoes and body odor clung to them-- reinforced over years of use. Hundreds of Mutants stepped down the steps. Walked the massive halls lined with artwork and motivational imagery. Sometimes it really felt like Charles Xavier was trying to make a School. Too bad the world didn't want that. Too bad most people didn't for that matter.

An image of Scott Summers entered Laura's mind as she finished the thought. Reflexively, she forced it to the back of her mind as she traveled down the dark hallway. Her steps nothing more than a faint tapping against the polished wood floor. In her dark clothing she blended in with the shadows as if she weren't even there-- save for her lightly tanned skin..... and the way her eyes reflected the moonlight coming in through the windows at her sides.

A pair of glasses would be needed in the future-- along with a leash.... or an adamantium chain. It seemed one of her siblings was developing a pension for running off. She wondered if this was how Cap felt when she escaped her first S.H.I.E.L.D facility..

As a matter of fact, she wondered many things while following the faintest sounds of music, fizzling blasts, heavy winds and equally heavy breaths.

What was Bronte doing? Why would he put himself in danger to go out alone somewhere without telling anyone?

"This better be good." She thought to herself before turning around the hall and finding the massive metal doors into training looming in the distance.

The sounds increased, followed by a smell she knew well. It was something she smelled outside for over a month now. Rain.

***

Laura closed the distance between her and the Gymnasium quickly. Now more eager than ever to understand what was taking place inside. As she lightly pulled the door open and slipped inside, what she found was equally beautiful and terrifying.

It was a lightshow. It was vibrant, explosive, expressive, artistic, amateurish in it's execution. It was Bronte in his element.

In the center of the gym, a blurring sporadic beacon of light whizzed all around the floors like a lightning bug in a forest. In between each burst of blinding speed, Bronte was left standing, claws extended, and hair lit ablaze. Sweat fell from his toned arms-- flung itself from his extended legs with every kick, but it never hit the floor. Whenever he took off in a burst of wind, the sweat followed, circling him like a personal hurricane that was sometimes turned into snowflakes and other times left as spirals of steam that rose from his heated dark skin.

Sometimes it looked like he was teleporting. It probably would've looked more like that if she couldn't see how much he was lighting up the room.

It was incredible. All to the beat of the music booming from the stereo. He didn't even know she was there, hair flying about her face as the winds raged.

The more she watched, the more she realized he was re-enacting a scenario. It was the same sequence. A jump too fast to follow with human eyes. A land and charge, followed by a drop and leg sweep.

It was his fight with Daken. Only he didn't end it with his failed attacks. He began evading what would've been Daken's attacks, with a serious of twisting rolls and flips on the floor that was reminiscent of break dancing. And as he spun, freestyling and moving in a blur, streams of lightning followed in blurring bursts of light that popped the beads of water spinning around him.

It would've been all the more impressive if he didn't slip and fall on his face.

"FUCK MAN!" Bronte yelled out and punched the floor before kicking himself up onto his feet.

He looked more than ready to go again, but he'd finally caught her smell.

He froze momentarily before turning to face Laura.

To see him in his Storm-State so calm was still unnerving.

"Hehe.....What's goin on, big sis?" Bronte said. Following his words a crackle of thunder shook the gym and made Bronte jump.

Ironic.

"You tell me." Laura replied as she leaned against the wall near the doorway.

***

Bronte straightened, "I couldn't sleep.... I want to learn this."

"Why?" Laura asked.

He looked at her like she was dumb. The answer was so impossibly simple.

"Tell me why." Laura repeated.

"Cmon now-- Daken said I couldn't survive the Lupines without learning the full extent of my abilities."

Laura shook her head, "Is that why you want to learn all this. Truly?" She asked, placing an emphasis on "you".

Bronte suddenly understood what she meant. The whole reason he felt so jumpy in bed, what truly pulled him into the gym. "I'm tired of feeling weak. That shits for the birds, to be honest... and it felt different to help someone else for once."

Laura's eyes twinkled in the dark, "Different how?"

Bronte shrugged as he continued to light up the dark room, "It was..... exhilarating."

Laura smiled. He felt like he'd never seen her smile, he wondered if he was in danger suddenly.

As he questioned her sanity, she simply waved for him to follow after her.

"Follow me. I'd like to get some fresh air."

***

Twenty minutes later, and they were outside. Like truly outside, in a forest that flanked the Xavier Institute. In a weird twist of fate, he had become one of the bloody knuckled hooded mutants as he stood beside Laura. It felt like years ago when the hooded mysteries were stalking him.

And now here he stood. Beside the daughter of Wolverine, in a forest dampened by a heavy rainfall.

His anxiety felt as high as the evergreen trees around him. His breaths quick but pointless as the water sounded off as a steady pitter patter on the water resistent surface of his jacket. His hood was already soaked, causing beads of water to fall in his eyes and mouth. Every time a bolt of lightning fell, he jumped.

Laura shook her head, "How are you supposed to use your Storm-State against your enemies if you're scared of it?"

Bronte looked over at Laura as they stood at the entry into the forest, "The Storm-State and this..." He said, referencing to the sky and rain, "Are two different things."

"You and I both know they aren't."

Bronte shivered as he looked up at the stormy night sky. To think that was him-- in part or entirely.

"Here." Laura said.

Bronte turned and found her holding out an MP3 player to him with a pair of earbuds.

"It helped me-- for the same reasons oddly enough." Laura said matter of factly as Bronte took it.

"You were scared of storms, too? Say swear." Bronte asked in shock..... no pun intended.

Laura gave him a side-eye, "No dumbass. I needed the music to help with.... my fears."

Bronte cleared his throat shyly, "Erhm.... right, right. That makes more sense."

Laura nodded, "I bet it does."

"So why are we out here? Isn't this dangerous?" Bronte questioned.

"Our lives are dangerous by default, hermano. But this is the best time, in the rain our scents are much harder to track-- our sounds harder to locate. Romulus tends to avoid sending out his attack squads during rain showers since it produces less accurate hunts. Lupines aren't smart."

"So we good?" Bronte asked.

"You ask too many questions. I brought you out here to give you some time away from it all. To give you space to move-- to be free from the pressures of performing and deciding your future. I brought you out here to do what those like us love doing."

"Standing in the rain? Yea y'all tripping." Bronte said, jumping at another thunderous rumble.

"No. I brought you out here to run. To see the night in all it's glory, to smell the rain and the earth untouched by humans and conflict. It clears the mind. Now put in the earbuds and move your ass." Following her words, Laura took off.

For a moment, Bronte was stunned by her speed. She was a blur. He hadn't even seen Daken move so fast.

In the silence another bolt of lightning fell and the winds howled like wolves on the hunt.

Bronte fumbled with the earbuds and turned on the MP3 player.

"Oh hell no." He said before nervously taking off after her.

***

And then they were running. At first it was scary, dark and unknown lands tended to be that way. But then-- with the help of the calming music playing in his ears, he let loose. He let go. And as a result, his Storm-State was let in.

The hood that once cloaked his head was burned away as his hair was made elemental and the rain that once bombarded his frame had begun to trail him like hundreds of liquid intertwining snakes. Waves even rumbled beneath the dirt in his wake.

It was as she said. It was clearing. It was beautiful. To the see the night in near perfect clarity. The squirrels fleeing in the distance, the odd dear or two running beside him in the distance, the stars peeking through the storm clouds above. It almost felt magical.

His lungs were infinite as he ran and leapt through the forest, abandoning the floor to jump from tree to tree with gusts of wind powerful enough to rip the leaves from the branches in his wake.

At some point, he'd found Laura running beside him. Her hood had fallen and left her thick brown hair soaked as it trailed behind her. Her usually stony face looked at peace as they moved. Then she smiled and took off. For a moment, he saw the similarity to Wolverine. It reminded him of something he'd read a few nights prior....

***

An hour passed and he found Laura standing in the distance. They'd run all around the forest nonstop until this point.

Bronte skidded to a halt behind her. His breaths barely affected, but his muscles content with the added physical stimulus.

Suddenly his Storm-State faded, and a new level of tiredness hit. He took a seat on a fallen over tree, the soggy bark deteriorated in the presence of his weight.

Laura walked over to a nearby tree and leaned her back up against it. She sighed and looked up at the sky, running a hand over her soaked hair.

"You were right..... that was nice." Bronte said. For the moment, the storm didn't feel so horrifying.

"I know." Laura said.

The two sat in the silence for a moment before she spoke again, "So.... you enjoyed being able to help someone today?"

Bronte was confused by the question before nodding, "Yea-- yea, it felt good."

Laura nodded but otherwise looked unaffected.

"Why you ask?"

Laura shrugged, "None of the others have said that."

Bronte waved her off, "I'm sure the others feel something similar-- it's natural."

Laura shook her head, "Nothing about any of us is natural, Bronte. Gabbie wants friends-- she wants parents. Raze wants to follow his impulses..... he wants to kill and eat to his hearts content. And Daken wants revenge. Altruism isn't very high on their list of personal characteristics."

Bronte watched the rain fall to his hand and hover just above his skin as he replied, "What about you?"

"There's nothing to say about me."

Bronte didn't respond, even if he didn't believe that for a second. She was the one that brought everyone together. There was much about her.

Suddenly she grunted and looked down at him, "I bring all this up for a reason."

Bronte nodded in understanding.

"Helping people-- it can be... addicting-- volatile. As weird as that sounds. If you use to cope for something your missing, that can be good motivation, but when you fail..... it hurts. It hurts like hell, Bronte. And it's not easy. It changes a person. There's a reason there's only five heroes for who knows how many hundreds of villains."

Bronte watched her as she spoke.

"It's easy to look away. It's easy to not care, it's easy to quantify people as numbers and disconnect."

"Yea I get that." Bronte said, feeling that Laura was talking about something very specific. Something he didn't understand at the moment.

"Doing the right thing is... complicated. And you may find that complication to be too much. Trust me, the fall is worse than the climb. And remember, if you roll with us right and wrong won't always be paramount. We want blood, Bronte. It doesn't matter what side of morality we fall on in pursuit of it." Laura explained.

Bronte nodded in understanding, focusing on a certain phrase. "The fall is worse than the climb."

"You're speaking from experience...." Bronte said without looking at her.

Laura pushed herself off the tree she leaned against and began kicking around the wet sticks beneath her feet.

"In the files on Wolverine.... I found reports-- public accounts and sightings of Wolverine after his death. People said it was a woman-- less brutal, less animalistic. They said she raided countless child trafficking rings-- stopped a surprising number of robberies in the short span of a few months... then there was an accident."

Laura's hand shot up, "Shh."

"You were the next Wolverine." Bronte was suspicious of his readings, but it seems she was confirming it.

"Bronte, get on your feet. Now."

Nevermind.

Bronte got up hesitantly. "What?"

"SHH!" She snapped.

Suddenly the realization set in. There was no sound. No squirrels, no birds, no deer. Like there was a predator in the forest. One large enough to clear it entirely in ways they could not. The smell of blood didn't help things. Fresh and warm.

"Lupines." Bronte whispered as he popped his claws.

"No. We didn't hear any howls." Laura replied before popping her own claws.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!! HOO! HOO! HOOHAHAHAHAHA!"

Bronte jumped as a ragged human voice began cackling, screaming and hooting from above. His eyes rose up to find a blurring shape jumping through the trees like a Monkey on steroids. In it's wake, something fell.

Bronte could smell it before he recognized it. A decapitated deer.

"HRAGHSH!" A snarl in front of him caught his attention suddenly in the midst of the sudden chaos. It was a diversion.

He looked down just in time to see the blur being intercepted by Laura as she tackled the large shape with a growl. The two rolled in the dirt, clawing, biting and kicking at each other until Laura ended up on top.

She held down the attacker with her claws in it's back.

Now still, Bronte could see that it was a woman.... in theory. She wore barely anything. A slim singlet of reinforced leather traced her curves and ran over her muscled shoulders. A dark purple in color that contrasted strongly with the dark auburn fur covering her body from head to toe. It matched the color of her hair save for two greyish white streaks that stood out in the dark. She looked like Rahne when she shifted.... only wilder. Her pure white eyes blinked rapidly as she shook and thrashed against the floor.

"YOU'RE SO DEAD, BITCH! You're no successor! Let me go and I'll show you!" The pinned feral Mutant growled.

Bronte was too stunned to speak. This was no mindless monster. It was a human-- a Mutant. Working for Romulus. Come to kill them. It was all happening again-- so suddenly.

"Who else is with you, huh? Did Romulus run out of Lupines? Who's the howler in the trees? Bronte stay alert. Don't run." Laura questioned the Mutant and spoke to Bronte.

"I'll SHOW YOU!!" She raged.

"HAHAHAHAHA! HOO HOO!!!!" The wild being in the tree's continued to scream and swing around them.

"Let me go, NOW!" The Mutant yelled.

"I think you've shown enough, kiddo."

The voice boomed, dwarfing the intensity of the thunder and coming from seemingly everywhere. It was deep-- inhumanely deep and insidious in ways he couldn't describe. It sounded almost.... like a bass heavy hiss lined each word. Like a lion closing in on its prey. Teeth bared and claws extended.

Bronte's knee's wiggled beneath him as Laura cursed, "BRONTE RUN!"

"Besides, i'd like to see what the new runt has to offer...hehehehe....CMERE!"

The winds behind him cut, Bronte's reflexes kicked in and he used his Storm-State to try and bound away.

A failure.

Despite his incredible new physical gifts, the holder of the horrific voice was faster and closed in on him with a pounce that felt unavoidable. Thick claws curled like meat hooks sunk into the back of his neck.

"AAAHHH--"

His screams were cut short as another set of claws raked his throat into a torn mess with a single swipe, a feline growl suddenly shook his senses as he was lifted into the air and slammed into the earth hard enough to break the bones in the left side of his face upon impact.

The entire left side of his vision was died red by the blood that leaked from his eye and crushed orbital bone. He tried to move, and the crushing force increased. He let out little more than a raspy breath as his bones broke and ripped through his face.

Laura now stood with her claws to the Mutant females throat. Her eyes ablaze with rage and her sharp teeth bared, "You let him go, you traitorous son of a bitch!"

The man holding Bronte let out a laugh that sounded equally similar to a growl, "Awwe come on, Laura. That's no way to treat your dear old Uncle. I just wanted to check in on the new runt.... heheheh... he's a new one ain't he? Kind of reminds me of the last one... what was his name?.... John-- no. OH! James..... no, Jimmy. Yea that's it. He reminds me of Jimmy. He's exciting. I want to rip his arms off!"

"Let him go right now, Victor." Laura said coldly.

Victor snarled loudly, "Come take him, Little Wolverine! Cause if you don't, WildChild will catch you.... and then you're dead."

In the distance, the sound of the being once running through the trees faded, followed by something hitting the ground.... and then running. Fast. Very fast.

In the chaos of it all, Bronte didn't notice the familiar unnatural dulling warmth washing over him. Closing off his senses, making things less acute.

In the distance Laura smiled.

But Daken spoke from behind him.

"Heads up dumbass."

Victor's grip on him loosened.

The sound of flesh tearing filled the silence, and then all hell broke loose....